Ex-Liverpool footballer witnessed ‘horrible’ France stabbing attack

Former Liverpool footballer Anthony Le Tallec has said he witnessed the horrific stabbing attack in a lakeside park in the town of Annecy on Thursday morning that left a number of people badly injured.

Four young children and an adult were wounded in the incident, which began when a man armed with a knife entered their playground, according to police, with two of the youngsters and the adult left battling life-threatening injuries.

French interior minister Gerald Darmanin has since said that the suspected attacker had been arrested.

Mr Le Tallec, who played for Liverpool between 2001 and 2008, retired in 2021 and now works as a coach at the Alpine town’s football club said: “I was running by the lake and I saw around ten people running in the opposite direction to me.

“I asked them what was happening and someone told me, run, run, there is someone stabbing people.

“He has stabbed some children, run, run!”

He continued: “I saw the guy opposite me, being chased by cops five or ten metres behind him, trying to catch him.

“I continued. I saw children at the end of the lake, some children on the ground. Some injured children, it’s horrible.”

President Emmanuel Macron called the attack an act of “absolute cowardice” and said the “nation is in shock”, pledging to give an address about the incident later on Thursday.

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